‘Is Barcwit expecting us?’ asked Roger in a low voice, so as not to be overheard by the jittery troops.
Geoffrey shrugged. ‘According to Lifwine, he does not believe we have the courage to confront him. Did you make sure the cambium is locked up?’
‘In the cellar next to Sendi, although it was tempting to shove him in the same one. I do not approve of men who betray their friends – even when those friends are men like Sendi.’
Then they were off, marching in ragged columns along the same road they had taken at dawn. Fearfully, people watched them pass, and some folk darted into their houses and secured their doors. Others quickly followed suit, and it was not long before the streets were empty, with windows shuttered as if it were night, rather than the middle of the morning.
When they reached Barcwit’s mint, Roger escorted a third of the men to the back of the building, while Helbye and Geoffrey divided the remaining soldiers between them. Helbye took the alley that ran along the side, while Geoffrey went to the front, indicating that Ulfrith and Durand were to accompany him. He stepped up to the door and hammered on it with the hilt of his dagger. It was opened by Maude, so quickly he suspected she had been waiting for him.
‘I heard you met with success today. Have you come to thank me for my help in catching Sendi?’
‘I have come to arrest you,’ replied Geoffrey. ‘I have written evidence of a plot to kill the King, and you, Barcwit and all your people must answer for it.’
‘Surrender?’ she asked, her eyes unreadable. ‘I do not think so!’
She leaned forward, as if to say something else, but Geoffrey had seen the flash of metal in the sunlight, and jumped away from the dagger intended to disembowel him. She staggered and he pinned her against the wall, yelling for his men to enter the mint as he did so. They hesitated, so he hurled her at Ulfrith and led the charge himself, hoping some of them would follow.
‘Barcwit!’ he yelled. ‘Your game is over, and I advise you to give up now.’
‘Do you indeed?’ asked Tasso from the scribes’ room. Rodbert was with him; both held swords.
‘Go into the minting chamber,’ Geoffrey ordered the soldiers behind him. ‘Lead the way, Durand. Find Barcwit, and kill anyone who tries to escape.’
‘Me?’ asked Durand in an unsteady voice. ‘You want me to find Barcwit?’
Tasso lunged at Durand and laughed when the squire gave a yelp of fright.
‘Go!’ yelled Geoffrey to Durand. ‘I will deal with these two.’
‘Both of us?’ asked Rodbert in a soft, dangerous voice.
Geoffrey was aware of footsteps behind him, followed by a good deal of shouting. He hoped the men were doing as he ordered, and wished he had given Maude to Durand to mind, and told Ulfrith to lead the attack. But it was too late to change anything, so he turned his attention to the pair who moved forward to fight him, waiting to see who would strike first.
It was Tasso, who lunged with an almighty swing that Geoffrey was hard-pressed to parry. Geoffrey pretended to stagger, then gave the man a powerful shove when he moved in to press the advantage he thought he had won. Rodbert attacked while Geoffrey was distracted, but the flashing blade did not penetrate his mail. Geoffrey went after him so fast that he tripped over a low bench and fell awkwardly; it was obvious from the unpleasantly soggy snap that he had broken his arm. While the deputy howled and cursed, Geoffrey spun around to face Tasso.
Tasso was evidently anticipating a more leisurely skirmish, because he was unprepared for the lightning way Geoffrey came for him. While they slashed at each other, Rodbert lurched to the shelves and began to lob whatever he could lay his good hand on – inkpots, writing slates, jars of sand used for drying wet ink. Some were heavy, and Geoffrey was obliged to use one arm to fend them off, fighting Tasso with the other. He began to doubt the wisdom of tackling both at the same time.
‘You are going to die,’ taunted Rodbert, hurling a block of sealing wax with devastating accuracy. Geoffrey’s head jerked forward with the impact and he was glad he was wearing his helmet.
He did not reply, but used both hands to whirl his sword in a circle, so Tasso, leaping back to avoid being cut in half, staggered into the deputy. Rodbert screeched as his colleague smashed into his injured arm. Furious, Tasso attacked with a series of clean, sweeping blows. Geoffrey parried them with no trouble, but was beginning to tire. Broadswords were heavy, and there was only so long a man could wield them – especially when one hand was fending off a potentially lethal aerial bombardment.
‘Hurry,’ Rodbert snapped, gritting his teeth. ‘Giffard will be here at any moment, and we do not want to be fighting the King’s agent when he arrives. That would be difficult to explain.’
Geoffrey ducked as the deputy hurled one of the lead weights used for anchoring parchments. It thumped into the wall behind him and cracked the plaster. While he was off balance, Tasso landed a particularly heavy blow that vibrated up his arm and numbed his hand. He felt his sword begin to slip out of his grasp, and only kept hold of it by sheer will power. Tasso sensed his weakness and launched another attack.
‘I wish Lifwine and I had killed you in Bath,’ shouted Rodbert. ‘Then we would not be in this ridiculous position. I should have used Maude. She knows how to escape from tight situations – it was her idea to use the false dies and our dead cambium to trap Sendi. She is quite a woman.’
‘I know,’ said Geoffrey, deliberately taunting in the hope that it would provoke the man into doing something other than lobbing heavy objects.
It was a mistake. Rodbert’s bombardment intensified, and his anger served to make him more accurate, not less. Meanwhile, Tasso used the distraction to drive Geoffrey into a place where he was even more exposed to Rodbert’s volleys. Geoffrey went down on one knee when a wax tablet caught him on the chin, and found himself facing a new danger: Rodbert’s feet. As long as Geoffrey was fending off Tasso, it was difficult to protect himself. Rodbert’s first kick caught Geoffrey on the knee, and the second in the stomach. Geoffrey staggered to his feet, but he was winded, and could not raise his sword. With a blank, professional expression, Tasso prepared to end the encounter, while Rodbert retrieved his own sword and advanced from the other side. Then Ulfrith was in the room, wielding an axe heavily and clumsily.
‘No,’ gasped Geoffrey, when Rodbert turned on him. Even one-handed, the deputy would kill Ulfrith, because the lad was not yet properly trained. ‘I told you to watch Maude.’
‘I killed her,’ said Ulfrith apologetically. ‘She drew a knife, so I was obliged to stab—’
‘You killed her?’ demanded Rodbert in disbelief. ‘You murdered my sister? I will—’
‘Your sister?’ echoed Geoffrey, startled. He twisted away from Tasso and ducked behind a table, to put a barrier between them while he caught his breath. ‘But you are lovers!’
‘I thought she was married to Barcwit,’ said Ulfrith, equally bewildered. With horror, Geoffrey saw him lower his axe while he considered the revelation: Ulfrith was not able to think and fight at the same time, and Geoffrey saw Rodbert’s face twisted with anger and hatred as he advanced.
‘Ulfrith!’ Geoffrey yelled. ‘Your weapon!’
Ulfrith brought his axe up in front of him, and it was pure luck that it parried the murderous blow Rodbert aimed at his head. Meanwhile, Tasso grabbed the table and hurled it away so he could reach Geoffrey.
‘Now we will end this,’ said Tasso grimly. ‘No more playing.’
‘Fight me!’ Geoffrey shouted to Rodbert, half his attention still on Ulfrith. The sight of a friend in danger gave him the strength he needed to deal with Tasso. Now free from Rodbert’s missiles, he attacked with a series of two-handed swipes that demonstrated why he had survived so many Holy Land battles. ‘Or does a man who seduces his sister not have the courage? Ulfrith did not sleep with Maude. I did. She said she needed a man, because you were not up to the task.’
‘Just like their father, then,’ Tasso muttered, his face cont
orted with effort as he countered Geoffrey’s blazing attack. ‘Barcwit is said to be poor in the bedchamber, too.’
Geoffrey’s thoughts whirled, but it was no time for assessing Maude’s peculiar taste in lovers. He saw his taunts had not encouraged Rodbert away from Ulfrith, and the boy was rapidly losing ground under the onslaught, so, while Tasso was still in retreat, he snatched up an inkpot and threw it as hard as he could. There was a crack as it struck Rodbert’s skull. For a moment, the deputy continued to walk, but then his knees buckled and he pitched forward. Geoffrey could not see whether he was dead when he fell, but he certainly was once Ulfrith had plunged the axe into him. Tasso’s assault faltered, and he gazed at his fallen colleague in disbelief.
‘Put up your sword, Tasso,’ ordered Geoffrey. ‘There is no point in fighting further.’
Tasso closed his eyes, and seemed suddenly weary. ‘I fought with honour and can do no more.’
Geoffrey took the proffered sword and indicated that Tasso should precede him to the workshop, where he had seen Edric murdered just two days before. Killing unarmed men was hardly honourable, either, but he did not bother to point that out. Tasso was a hireling, no more. Maude, Rodbert and Barcwit held the real power, and two of them were dead. There was only Barcwit to go.
He pushed open the door of the mint, expecting Roger and Helbye to have done their work and secured the rest of the building. He was startled, therefore, to find it abandoned. He was about to go and see what was happening at the back when he heard a click. Slowly, he turned around.
‘That is far enough,’ said a familiar voice. ‘Let Tasso go. He does not like being at the end of a sword – not the pointed end, at least.’
‘I killed her,’ said Ulfrith, when Geoffrey glared at him. ‘There was blood and everything.’
‘A scratch,’ said Maude. Geoffrey saw there was a gouge in her arm, although it did not affect her ability to hold a crossbow. He saw three others behind her, similarly armed. ‘You should teach your men to inspect their “dead” enemies before jumping to conclusions, Geoffrey.’
Geoffrey said nothing, and Tasso stepped forward to disarm him. He considered resisting, but the expression on Maude’s face told him she would not hesitate to shoot, just for the inconvenience he had caused her. Then a door opened, and more of Barcwit’s men entered, holding Helbye and Roger at sword point. The big knight was scowling furiously, while Helbye limped and his face was ashen.
‘It is these new boots you bought me,’ the old soldier declared sullenly. ‘They pinch, and I cannot move properly. This rout had nothing to do with my aching hip.’
‘I am sorry,’ murmured Roger. ‘Peter’s rabble deserted when Maude said Barcwit was coming.’
‘There he is!’ said Ulfrith in alarm, pointing to the cloaked figure who stood silent and foreboding at one side of the room. Barcwit looked exactly as he had when he watched Edric’s execution, with his face in shadow and his hands tucked in his sleeves. Geoffrey frowned. Then, before anyone could stop him, he darted forward and took a handful of the man’s clothing. Tasso screamed in outrage, and sprang forward to pull him away, but it was too late.
With a small squeak the figure slowly toppled and landed with a crash.
‘Barcwit does not exist,’ said Geoffrey, gesturing to the cloak that lay on the floor. ‘He is just rags on a stick. You put him in windows and shadowy corners to frighten people, but he is not real.’
‘But I saw him walking,’ said Roger in confusion. ‘Out in the town.’
‘That was Maude,’ said Geoffrey. ‘She disappeared very quickly the time we met in St John’s Church, indicating she has intimate knowledge of Bristol’s small alleys and hidden paths. She put that knowledge to good use by donning dark clothes and stalking around at night. Her ability to materialize and slip away again made people think Barcwit was in league with the Devil – an image she is happy to perpetuate.’
‘It worked,’ said Maude with a smile. ‘Today is a good example. All I had to do was shout that Barcwit was coming, and your attack turned into a rout.’
‘Has he ever existed?’ asked Geoffrey. He answered his own question. ‘Of course he has. The beggars in St John’s Church said he was once a normal-sized man with an appetite for whores. He had an appetite for his daughter, too, if Tasso is to be believed.’
Maude glared at Tasso, who shrugged. ‘I have always found your marriage an unusual one.’
‘It has been a very successful partnership,’ stated Maude irritably. ‘And we were married in name only. I would never lie with my father. What kind of woman do you think I am?’
Geoffrey did not reply, but supposed a chaste marriage explained why she sought comfort elsewhere – with her brother, for example. Tasso cleared his throat, troubled, and Geoffrey knew he was searching for the words to tell her Rodbert was dead. He sensed they would not live long once that news was out and flailed around for questions to ask, in the hope that a delay would give him time to think of a way out of their predicament. All Peter’s soldiers had fled, and Durand had evidently gone with them: Geoffrey and his three companions were on their own – unarmed and watchfully guarded.
‘Your half-brother is—’ began Tasso softly.
‘We can talk about dies instead,’ Geoffrey interrupted hastily. ‘Did you take Sendi’s new die, as well as his old ones? Or was that Lifwine?’
‘We had nothing to do with that,’ replied Maude. ‘And neither did Lifwine – although he is a slippery sort of fellow and may be lying.’ She looked at the mess they had made: overturned benches, scattered tools and spilled materials. ‘All this was quite unnecessary. We have done nothing wrong.’
‘Except plot to kill the King,’ said Geoffrey.
Maude sighed. ‘There is no plot. We have no reason to want Henry dead, and distant politics are irrelevant to us. We occasionally make slightly underweight coins, and sometimes we offer rates of interest above what we should, but that is all. Where is Rodbert?’ She looked questioningly at Tasso, who cleared his throat again.
‘I do not believe you,’ said Geoffrey quickly.
‘It does not matter what you believe,’ said Maude. She indicated ‘Barcwit’ with her head. ‘We cannot let you live now you have discovered he is no more than a cloak and a broom handle. It took a lot of clever rumour-mongering to create him, and I do not want to start all over again.’
‘I do not see why you bothered,’ said Roger in disgust. ‘It is stupid.’
‘But so are people,’ said Maude. ‘And they are always willing to believe the worst. A Barcwit who haunts dark streets and likes to watch hangings is far more interesting than an old man with twinkling eyes who married his daughter to protect her from over-zealous suitors – the daughter of a wealthy merchant was too attractive a target, and ambitious men would not leave me alone.’
‘We could not have frightened anyone with the real Barcwit,’ elaborated Tasso. ‘But the spectre of our Barcwit encouraged people not to withdraw their investments at awkward times, and not to look too carefully at what we were doing. Even Sendi was too frightened to come and spy. It is fear that keeps us rich.’ He turned to Maude, his face grim. ‘Rodbert is—’
‘Giffard will demand to meet Barcwit,’ interrupted Geoffrey. ‘And when you refuse – as you did with me – he will pronounce you all traitors, and that will be the end of you.’
‘Rodbert has been practising with face pastes and wigs these last few days,’ said Maude. ‘You have taught us that, at least – the King’s agents need to meet Barcwit if we want them to go away and leave us alone. And Giffard will do exactly that. There is no plot to kill the King, and there never was. I have no idea how your sister and Peter came up with that tale.’
‘We are victims of our own success,’ said Tasso ruefully. ‘That story was fabricated by others, because it seemed the kind of thing our Barcwit would do. The yarn about the priest’s child and the cat is untrue, too, and so is the one about the family who stopped outside our mint and were eaten.
They are myths invented by fear.’
‘What about Peter’s friend Nauntel?’ asked Roger.
‘Not our doing,’ replied Maude. ‘Nauntel was one of our investors, and is no use to us dead. On the contrary, we wanted him alive.’
‘And my brother?’ asked Geoffrey quietly.
‘Joan thinks we killed him,’ said Maude. ‘And I did nothing to disabuse her of the notion, because I do not want her to withdraw her investment. But we did not touch your brother. I am telling the truth, Geoffrey: you are going to die, so there is no need for me to lie to you about it.’
Tasso steeled himself. This time, his words were out before Geoffrey could stop him. ‘Speaking of brothers, Geoffrey has just murdered yours.’ He raised his sword. ‘Shall I …?’
Maude’s jaw dropped in horror. ‘Rodbert?’
‘Dashed his brains out with a pot,’ elaborated Tasso, waving his sword questioningly.
‘Rodbert?’ whispered Maude again, blood draining from her face.
Geoffrey knew there would not be another opportunity. While she was stricken with shock, he rushed forward and bowled her from her feet. Immediately, a hail of crossbow bolts snapped into the floor around them, and he heard Tasso yelling to the archers to cease fire, afraid they would hit Maude by mistake. While Geoffrey was still rolling across the floor with Maude in his arms, Tasso rushed at him with his sword. Geoffrey grabbed Maude’s bow and raised it to protect himself. Tasso’s blade sliced it in two. Then he prepared to do the same to Geoffrey.
With a roar, Roger powered across the room, slamming into Tasso and pinning him against the wall, while several of Barcwit’s men leapt on to the big knight’s back, trying to pull him away. Geoffrey ducked as more quarrels sliced through the air: not all the archers were obeying Tasso’s orders not to shoot. One soldier dropped to the floor with a shriek, and Maude scrabbled furiously at Geoffrey, trying to fasten her hands around his throat. Helbye and Ulfrith grappled with their own opponents, and suddenly, the whole room was a frantic swirl of weapons and struggling bodies.
The Coiner's Quarrel Page 32
